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History's Hinge - 'Ain Jalut

[Administration]

Host of Event:     The Lyceum Museum
Name of Event:    Love and Hate in Jamestown
Type of Event:    Lecture
Time:    7:30 PM - 1:00
Admission:    Free
Description of Event:    Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of the New Nation - 7:30 p.m. an illustrated lecture with author/historian David A. Price. Followed by book signing with the author. The Lyceum, Alexandria's History Museum, 201 S. Washington St. Alexandria. Free Admission. 703.549.2997

[Solomon]

We have some documents on this in our downloads section:
Jamestown downloads from History Hunters

[Solomon]

Society for Historical Archaeology

10.1.07-13.1.07

The 2007 conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology will be held in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. For the 40th anniversary of SHA and and the 400th of the founding of Jamestown. Entitled "Old World/New World: Culture in Transformation", the central theme is the historical archaeology of Jamestown in the context of the emerging 16th and 17th century Atlantic World. Papers and table exhibits now welcome by 3.11.06. Variations on the plenary theme and other individual research projects the incorporate comparative and interdisciplinary research are also encouraged. Innovative use of advanced technology will be a sub-theme throughout.

For more information contact Jackie Kerper at SHA, 15245 Shady Grove Road, Suite 130, Rockville, MD 20850, USA, email , web www.sha.org.

[Solomon]

Wreck of the Sea Venture, lost in 1609 off Bermuda

Saluting flying ace 'Smokey' Wingood - by Dan Jones

Tributes have been paid to a Bermuda war hero who devoted his retirement to exploring the Sea Venture wreck.


War hero, diver and historian Allan (Smokey) Wingood.

Flight Lieutenant Allan 'Smokey' Wingood - whose funeral was held on Thursday after he died at the age of 88 - flew 30 operations over Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

The air ace admitted he was -amazed- he survived a conflict which saw his bravery in bombing raids over war-torn Europe honoured with the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

But Mr. Wingood's extraordinary life story did not end there.

The war veteran then wrote himself into the pages of Bermuda history in the 1980s when his deep sea investigations confirmed that a wreck discovered some 20 years earlier was the Sea Venture, whose sinking in 1609 began the settlement of the Island.
Born in Bermuda, Mr. Wingood attended Saltus Grammar School before leaving for England in 1940 to train with the Royal Air Force.

He got his wings in 1941 and married Peggy, born in Birmingham, England, the following year.

The couple managed to squeeze in a one week honeymoon, of sorts, amid the uncertainty and stresses of war, before Mr. Wingood started his first of 30 operations over Europe.

He flew a Vickers Wellington bomber, and his flying skills returned him back to base safely on one mission despite being 'coned' in enemy searchlights for 20 minutes.

On another raid his communications equipment failed leaving him unaware what was happening back at base.

Unsure whether other planes had been recalled and he was the only pilot over the German target - up to 800 aircraft often took part in such lightning raids - Mr. Wingood carried on calmly yet courageously and completed the mission.

There had been no recall - but it was that display of bravery that saw him decorated with the DFC.

Speaking from her home in Devonshire yesterday, Mrs. Wingood fondly recalled the ceremony at Buckingham Palace when King George VI presented the medals to hundreds of servicemen.

The couple's nine-month-old daughter, Katherine, accompanied them and was carried to the Palace in a wicker basket - giving the waiting press photographers a heartwarming picture they just couldn't resist. It later appeared on several front pages.
After a short spell in North Africa, Mr. Wingood returned to Bermuda in 1946.

He worked for Pan Am Airways for 13 years before moving into the marine contracting business, servicing an underwater ocean research tower for the US Navy.

In 1978 the keen diver and student of Bermuda history secured a licence to head an investigation into the wreck discovered in 1959, although yet to be officially confirmed as the sunken Sea Venture.

After Mr. Wingood uncovered a host of rare treasure from the site, an archaeology expert was drafted in and he confirmed the finds dated back to the 16th and 17th Centuries - and that the wreck was the remains of the historic vessel.

In 1989, the war hero was awarded the Queen-s Certificate and Badge of Honour for his dedicated work on the Sea Venture.

Remembering her husband and 64 years of happy marriage, Mrs. Wingood added yesterday: "Allan was quiet and affectionate and straight as a die. He was perfect."

Mr. Wingood leaves three children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

His funeral service was held at Holy Trinity Church, Hamilton Parish, on Thursday afternoon.

Sea Venture
The Sea Venture was a 17th-century English sailing ship, the wrecking of which in Bermuda is widely thought to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest. She was the flagship of the Virginia Company, and was an highly unusual vessel for her day.

The Virginia Company
The Virginia Company had established the settlement of Jamestown in Virginia in 1607, and delivered supplies and additional settlers in 1608, raising the colony's population to 500. The entire operation was characterised by a lack of resources and experience. The Company's fleet was composed of vessels which were less than optimal for delivering large numbers of passengers across the Atlantic, and the colony itself was threatened by starvation, disease, and warfare with native peoples. Despite the delivery of supplies in 1608, it seemed certain, at that time, that the colony would meet the same fate as two earlier English attempts to settle on the Cheasapeake without a major relief effort.

The construction of the Sea Venture
In response to the inadequacy of its vessels, the Company built, probably in Aldeburgh, the Sea Venture as England's first purpose-designed emigrant ship. She displaced 300 tons, cost ?1,500, and differed from her contemporaries primarily in her internal arrangements. Her guns were placed on her main deck, rather than below decks as was then the norm. This meant the ship did not need double-timbering, and she may have been the first single-timbered, armed merchant ship built in England. The hold was sheathed and furnished for passengers. She was armed with eight nine-pounder demi-culverins, eight five-pounder sakers, four three-pounder falcons, and four arquebusses. The ship was probably launched in 1608, and her uncompleted journey to Jamestown appears to have been her maiden voyage.

The loss of the Sea Venture
On 2 June 1609, the Sea Venture set sail from Plymouth as the flagship of an eight-ship fleet destined for Jamestown, Virginia as part of the Third Supply, carrying 500-to-600 people (unclear whether that number includes crew, or only settlers). On the 25 July, the fleet ran into a strong storm, likely a hurricane, and the ships were separated. The Sea Venture fought the storm for three days. Comparably-sized ships had survived such weather, but the Sea Venture had a critical flaw in her newness, as her timbers had not set. The caulking was forced from between them, and the ship began to leak rapidly. All hands applied were applied to bailing, but the water continued to rise in the hold. The ship's guns were jettisoned to raise her bouyancy, but this only delayed the inevitable. The Admiral of the Company, Sir George Somers himself, was at the helm through the storm. When he spied land on the morning of 28 July, the water in the hold had risen to nine feet, and crew and passengers had been driven past the point of exhaustion. Somers deliberately drove the ship onto the reefs of what proved to be Bermuda in order to prevent its foundering. This allowed all 150 people, and one dog, aboard to be landed safely ashore.

Deliverance and Patience
The survivors, including several the company officials (Lieutenant-General Thomas Gates, the ship's captain Christopher Newport, Captain Samuel Jordan, and secretary William Strachey), were stranded on Bermuda for approximately nine months. During that time, they built two new ships, the pinnaces Deliverance and Patience, from Bermuda cedar and parts salvaged from the Sea Venture', especially her rigging. It had been intended to build only one vessel, the Deliverance, but it soon became evident that she would not be large enough to carry the settlers and all of the food (salted pork) that was being sourced on the islands. While the new ships were building, the Sea Venture's longboat was fitted with a mast and sent under the command of Henry Raven to find Virginia. The boat and its crew were never seen again. Other members of the expedition died, or were killed, or born before the Deliverance and the Patience set sail on 10 May 1610. Among those left buried in Bermuda were the wife and child of John Rolfe, who would found Virginia's tobacco industry, and find a new wife in Powhatan princess Pocahontas. Two men, Carter and Waters, were left behind to maintain the claim of the islands for England, but the remainder arrived in Jamestown on 23 May.

Sir Thomas Gates had a cross erected before leaving Bermuda, on which was a copper tablet enscribed in Latin and English:

In Memory of our deliverance both from the Storme and the Great leake wee have erected this cross to the honour of God. It is the Spoyle of an English Shippe of 300 tonnes called SEA VENTURE bound with seven others (from which the storme divided us) to Virginia or NOVA BRITANIA in America. In it were two Knights, Sir Thomas Gates, Knight Gouvenor of the English Forces and Colonie there: and Sir George Somers, Knight Admiral of the Seas. Her Captain was Christopher Newport. Passengers and mariners she had beside (which all come to safety) one hundred and fiftie. Wee were forced to runne her ashore(by reason of her leake) under a point that bore South East from the Northerne Point of the Island which wee discovered first on the eigth and twentieth of July 1609.

This was not the end of the survivors' ordeals, however. On reaching Jamestown, only 60 survivors were found of the 500 who had preceded them. Many of these survivors were themselves dying, and Jamestown itself was judged to be unviable. Everyone was boarded onto the Deliverance and Partience, which set sail for England. The timely arrival of another relief fleet, bearing Governor Baron De La Warre, which met the two ships as they descended the James River, granted Jamestown a reprieve. All the settlers were relanded at the colony, but there was still a critical shortage of food. Somers returned to Bermuda with the Patience to secure provisions, but died there in the summer of 1610. His nephew, Matthew, the captain of the Patience, sailed for England to claim his inheritance, rather than return to Jamestown. A third man, Chard, was left behind with Carter and Waters, who remained the only permanent inhabitants until the arrival of the Plough in 1612.


Sylvester Jordain's "A Discovery of the Barmudas".

The ordeal was recounted by Strachey, whose account is believed to have influenced the creation of Shakespeare's play The Tempest, and by Sylvester Jordain.

Postscript

Although the Sea Venture sat atop the reefs off Gate's Bay long enough to be stripped of all useful parts and materials, not only by her crew and passengers, but by subsequent settlers, what was left of her eventually disappeared beneath the waves, and her precise location was unknown until rediscovered by sport divers, Downing and Heird, in October, 1958. Despite the lack of artifacts to be found, she was positively identified in 1959, in time for the 350th anniversary of the wrecking.

Nautical Archaeology of the Americas
Sea Venture, 1609
Left Plymouth, England, on June 7 1609 with six other ships and two pinnaces bound for Jamestown.  The fleet carried 600 new settlers under the command of Sir George Somers.  Caught by a hurricane, the Sea Venture was separated from the fleet and ran ashore on the north coast of Bermuda.

All the 150 passengers and crew reached the shore alive.  During the next nine months they built two small vessels with whatever they could rescue from the wreck, and sailed to Jamestown.

The early Bermuda settlers salvaged what was left from the vessel between 1619 and 1622, and soon it would be forgotten.

The wreck was found by sport divers in 1958 and not extensively salvaged by treasure hunters because there was very few left from the ship and its original cargo.

In 1978 the Bermuda Maritime Museum Association launched an archaeological excavation campaign

Hull remains
The bottom of a hull was found, confirming the large size of this vessels, reported to be around "300 tunnes."

Armament
Only one gun was found, in a stored condition.  When the tompion was removed a cannon ball rolled out.  In total 77 cannon shot were found, together with thousands of shot for small arms.
Artifacts

Several types of ceramics and cooking pots were found, sometimes matching the types found on the excavations of Jamestown.

Together with Devon coarse ceramics, Spanish jars, salt-glazed stoneware from Germany, and fine China shards were also found on site.

Sea Venture and Bermuda in 1609
   
Postage stamps of 1984 show Departure from Plymouth in 1609 and Admiral Sir George Somers (right), with fellow Bermuda castaway Sir Thomas Gates.

The Sea Venture was newly built from an English shipyard.  But the weather started to go bad.  On 25 July 1609 the Sea Venture was caught in a fierce tempest (an early hurricane by the standards of today) off the Azores, and carried for several days by raging winds.  They took her hundreds of miles from her scheduled course. All the passengers were sea sick and miserable. Then she was wrecked off the reefs of Bermuda's Discovery Bay, with no loss of life. Sir George was the first man to explore and map Bermuda.



Then, Bermuda was known as Virgineola - a smaller edition of Virginia, the British colony founded a few years earlier - in tribute to the late Virgin Queen, Elizabeth. But with King James the First of England and Sixth of Scotland, son of the former Scottish Queen whom Elizabeth had imprisoned and executed, a more diplomatic name was necessary. For leadership, courage at sea and other skills Admiral Sir George Somers showed, the islands became the Somers Isles, still Bermuda's official alternate name.



In his book "America,"  Alistair Cooke wrote that there were only three survivors, found in 1612. Instead of being the only survivors, they volunteered to be left behind in Bermuda while nearly 150 more survivors went on to Jamestown in 1610.

Their stay in Bermuda
n the meantime, seven of the nine vessels of the Third Supply Relief Fleet eventually reached Virginia in August 1609. The others were the Diamond, Blessing, Falcon, Unitie, Lion and Swallow.

They were all battered by the same tempest and forced to jettison much needed cargo. The Catch was the only one to perish at sea, with the loss of all souls.


Admiral Sir George Somers, Governor Elect Sir Thomas Gates and their companions including John Rolfe, all presumed dead by those in Virginia, remained in Bermuda for 10 months.

Their first Christmas was much warmer than in England or Virginia. William Strachey, their scribe, kept a diary and also recorded how the colonists built the first St. Peter's Church in St. George's from palmetto and cedar and thatched it with palmetto; and attached the bell of the wrecked Sea Venture.

Sir George supervised the building of the 30 ton pinnace Patience while the 80 ton barque Deliverance was done by Sir Thomas Gates, both from spars and rigging of the wrecked "Sea Venture" and local cedar. Sir George commanded the two vessels when they sailed to Virginia in May 1610, with 142 castaways, after 42 weeks in Bermuda. On arrival in Jamestown 10 days later, they found the colonists in great distress, with only  60 survivors. Fortunately, Sir George had provisioned his ships with enough food to buy a little time for the Jamestown Colony of Virginia.

[Sovereign]

British Museum
15 March ? 17 June 2007     

A New World: England's First View of America
Room 5, admission charge, supported  by the Annenberg Foundation

John White, a gentleman and artist, was key to shaping England?s first view of America though the extraordinary watercolours he produced whilst on the first English voyages to the New World in the 1580s. White was a member of the earliest expeditions to Roanoke, in what was then called Virginia, which were sent out by Queen Elizabeth?s sometime favourite Walter Raleigh. While there White drew the North Carolina Algonquian Indians, their surroundings and the local flora and fauna. These drawings are the only surviving visual record of this period of America?s history.

All of White?s original drawings are in the British Museum?s collection and will go on public display for the first time in forty years alongside objects that help to explore these fascinating Elizabethan voyages. As America prepares to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first settlement of Jamestown, the exhibition offers the opportunity to discover the earlier ?lost colony? of Roanoke and catch a glimpse of the English settlers' first encounters with the Indians of this part of the New World.

[Solomon]

A sketch by John White of Indians at Roanoke.

Before the camera, surveyors needed to be illustrators. Many today classified as artists were in fact surveyors.

John White (surveyor)
ohn White (c.1540 ? c.1606)[1] John White was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh as Sir Richard Grenville's artist-illustrator on his first voyage to the New World (1585-6). During this journey he made numerous sketches of the landscape and people they encountered (including the one at right). These works are significant as they pre-date the first body of "discovery voyage art" created in the late eighteenth century by the artists who sailed with Captain James Cook.



White, "Gentleman of London," later became governor of the newly-established Roanoke Colony. The first baby born there was his granddaughter, Virginia Dare. However, when the colony ran low on supplies the colonists requested that White return to England for provisions. His return to Roanoke was delayed by England's conflict with Spain and the Spanish Armada, and when he at last returned to Roanoke in August of 1590 he found it deserted. Forced by bad weather to abandon the search of adjacent islands for the colonists, he arrived in Plymouth on 24 October of that year.



Little is known of White's life after the failure of the Roanoke Colony. He appears to have been in Ireland living on the estates of Sir Walter Raleigh and making maps of land for Raleigh's tenants. The last surviving document related to White is a letter he wrote from Ireland in 1593 to the publisher of his Roanoke drawings.

However, a record from May of 1606 that a Bridgit White was appointed estate administrator for her brother "John White" may refer to him. A Bridgett White was also the second wife of a Robert Wight (1578?1617) of Hareby, Lincolnshire, England whom he married on 25 November 1613 at Alford. As this Robert was also the son of an obscure John Wight (b. abt. 1552) and the father of an Elizabeth Wighte (1606?1671) who is sometimes thought to have been the ex-wife of Nathaniel Eaton (1610?1674), the first schoolmaster of Harvard College, Massachusetts; there is a possibility that Bridgit White, the sister of John White the Governor of Roanoke Colony, and Bridgett White, the second wife of the same above-mentioned Robert Wight, are directly related to each other.

As an additional matter of interest, there is also a record of an Ann Barlow of Petersfield, Hants (died 1665), who was the second wife of a certain Josias White (1573?1622) of Hornchurch, Essex, son of a John White of Stanton St John, Oxford (1540 ? before 30 September 1618), who afterwards married a Francis Drake (1573?1634) of Walton, Surrey ? the nephew of Sir Francis Drake (1540?1596) the famous explorer.[2] This Josias White was the grandson of another John White (died 1580) whose relations were connected to the British Crown such as Dr Thomas White (1514?1588), "Lord Warden of New College, Oxford" and apparently good friend of Queen Elizabeth I as he avoided censure due to her personal intervention even though he was an avowed Catholic. Its only conjecture, but as the name Barlow is associated with the initial discovery and mapping of the Virginia coast by Capt Arthur Barlowe (1550?1620) in 1584, and that it was on Barlow's ship John White first sailed in on as the official illustrator of the New World, its easy to jump to conclusions and say that Ann Barlow is directly connected to the first Governor of Roanoke, Virginia in this way.

This same "John White of Stanton St John" who died in 1618 respectfully had a son by the name of the Rev. John White (1575?1648) of Dorchester who himself became famous for his role in establishing what became the town of Salem as the "Founder of Massachusetts." No connection has been shown between John White of Dorchester and John White, painter, of Roanoke.

Being an expert 16th-century illustrator required training as a painter, and John White clearly was educated as such, not as an engineer, doctor, or surveyor. He is probably the John White who was a member of the Painter-Stainers Livery Guild of London in the 1580s, which meant he probably served for seven years as an apprenctice to a member of the Guild to learn his craft.

[Tom Zart]

JAMESTOWN
1607



 Four hundred years ago high-born Brits sailed to America
Seeking fast fortunes, adventure and fame.
Many would never endure their first year here
Cultivating, foraging, and hunting game.

Arriving in Virginia they came ill-prepared
In search of gold and a route to the South Seas
What they found were hostile Indians,
Insects, starvation, and disease.

?Virginia is Earth?s only Paradise!?
 The laureate of England would proclaim!?
However by August of 1607,
 Every day there was anguish, and pain.

They ate their horses, dogs, cats and rats
 One man ate his wife and hid her bones in the ground.
Despite their hardships, half managed to survive
 Becoming America?s first permanent, English town .

By Tom Zart

[Bart]

   In 1585, John White, an English artist and cartographer, accompanied the voyage from England to the Outer Banks of North Carolina under a plan of Sir Walter Raleigh to settle "Virginia." White was at Roanoke Island for about thirteen months before returning to England for more supplies. During this period he made a series of over seventy watercolor drawings of indigenous people, plants, and animals. The purpose of his drawings was to give those back home an accurate idea of the inhabitants and environment in the New World. Despite their extraordinary significance, the watercolors were not published until the twentieth century.

   On the 1585 expedition of Sir Richard Grenville and Ralph Lane, the artist John White and the scientist Thomas Harriot spent their time describing the New World for the English. Visiting Indian villages and mapping the area as far north as the Chesapeake Bay, White left a good record of the region, but showed little of the English themselves other than their forts in Puerto Rico. He possibly made several copies of each drawing ? one for Harriot and one for his own files. Unfortunately for posterity, in 1586, when the colony made its hasty departure with Sir Francis Drake, part of White's pictorial accounts and Harriot's journals were lost.

   The next year, however, John White returned to Roanoke Island. This time he was governor of the colony and with him was his daughter Eleanor, who was married to Ananias Dare, one of the twelve assistants to the governor. From the beginning White had problems with Simon Fernandes, the pilot. Sailing from Portsmouth on 26 April 1587 the small fleet did not actually leave England until May 8. They finally reached the Outer Banks on July 22 where they were to pick up men left by the supply ship the previous year. The colony was then to settle on the Chesapeake Bay. But Fernandes refused to take the colonists any farther; hence, the second colony was also on Roanoke Island. There on 18 August 1587 Eleanor White Dare gave birth to a daughter, Virginia, the first child of English parents born in the New World and the grand-daughter of Governor White.

   This colony also had limited supplies; thus the settlers persuaded Governor White to return to England for provisions. Reluctantly he agreed and after a difficult voyage he arrived in Ireland in Mid-October. In England White assembled a small fleet only to have the Council prohibit its sailing because of the impending attack by the Spanish Armada. He was, however, permitted to sail with two small ships. French ships attacked them and forced them to return to England. It would be August 1590 before White returned to Roanoke Island. There he found that the colony had disappeared, the only clue to its fate being the word CROATOAN carved on a tree. Storms made it impossible to go to Croatoan to search for the colonists, none of whom (including White's daughter and grand-daughter) were ever seen by Englishmen again. The unfortunate White returned to England, arriving in Plymouth on 24 October.

    In 1590, Theodor De Bry made engravings from White's drawings to be printed in Thomas Hariot's account of the journey. Hariot, a mathematician, had also been part of the 1585 voyage. In his engravings, De Bry took certain liberties with White's images, and including them together here gives students and teachers everywhere the opportunity to use this material as a pedagogical resource on English views of native people. Additionally, linked to the images are the detailed and learned annotations of Paul Hulton and David Beers Quinn from The American Drawings of John White 1577-1590.



DRAWING BY JOHN WHITE Plate 32

Indian Woman and Young Girl

   A woman is standing to the front with her head turned half-right and with a child standing at her left side, facing half-left. The woman is wearing an apron-skirt of fringed skin of which only the part in front is visible, edged at top and bottom with a single row of white beads. Her hair is fringed in front, long behind and caught up at the nape of her neck. A headband, probably of woven beadwork, is shown running across her forehead and under the hair at each side. A close-fitting three-string necklace with a pendant is either worn or suggested by painting or tattooing on the skin. She also wears a long three-strand bead necklace hanging to her waist, through which her right hand is thrust. Painted or tattooed decoration is visible on her forehead, cheek and chin and on her upper arms. She holds in her left hand a large bottle-shaped gourd vessel. The girl's head reaches almost to the woman's waist and her hair is fringed on the forehead, hanging free at the sides and back. She wears a necklace of at least three strands of red and blue or black beads, with a tongue-like pendant which she is holding in her right hand. Her sole article of clothing is a thong or string passing round the waist, where it is tied in front, and through her crutch where it secures a small pad. In her left hand she holds a doll dressed in Elizabethan female costume.
Drawing

   Black, various shades of grey and brown water-colours, touched with white and crimson body-colours, over black lead; 26.3 x 14.9 cm. or 10 3/8 x 5 7/8 in.

Inscribed in dark brown ink, at the top, "A cheife Herowans wyfe of Pomeoc. | and her daughter of the age of .8. or. | .10. yeares. "

http://www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/introduction.html

[Bart]

NEWPORT, CHRISTOPHER

   Captain Christopher Newport (1560? - 1617) was an English privateer and navigator who transported colonists to the first permanent English colony in America, Jamestown, and sailed back and forth from England to the New World five times between 1606 and 1611, transporting both supplies and colonists. Captain Newport had been hired by the Virginia Company to transport the colonists. On December 19, 1606, Captain Newport sailed from London, England, commanding three small ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, carrying the Jamestown, Virginia settlers, including Capt. John Smith. Jamestown was founded on May 14, 1607, by this small group of English settlers. Newport left the 104 settlers in June 22, 1607, sailing back to England for supplies. That winter, most of the Jamestown settlers died from starvation, attacks, and disease. In 1608, back in Virginia, Newport halted the execution of Captain John Smith (the Jamestown leader who had been accused of causing the deaths of the men on his expedition to obtain food from the Indians); Smith's life had been previously saved by Pocahontas when he was brought before the Indian Chief Powhatan. On his fourth trip to America (in 1609), Newport was ship-wrecked in the Bermuda Islands and did not reach Virginia until mid-1610. After his American adventures, he sailed to Persia in 1613-1614 for the East India Company. Captain Newport died in Bantam, Java in 1617 on a voyage to the East Indies.

http://www.bruceruiz.net/PanamaHistory/Pirates/william_parker.htm

[Solomon]

Bart: I question whether the label 'pirate' is correct for Newport. Is there any evidence to support this?

Cheers!
Solomon

[Bart]

As being distinct from privateer, then you are correct that he ought not be labeled as pirate. My error, he is listed as a privateer. Thank you for pointing that out.

- Bart



Coming Spring 2007

By A. Bryant Nichols Jr.

   In this first full-length biography of Christopher Newport(1561-1617), Nichols portrays in carefully researched detail the adventurous life of the Elizabethan sea captain who led the Virginia colonists to Jamestown and successfully established the first permanent English colony in the New World.  Newport led the initial exploration of Virginia, claimed the land for England under the rule of King James I, chose the site of the Jamestown colony, and taught the colonists how to trade with the Indians for food.  Newport repeatedly rescued the colonists from famine with four resupply voyages.  His sailors helped build the initial stockade at James fort and on subsequent voyages built the colony?s church and storehouses and lastly the docks which made the export of tobacco possible.

   As a young man, Newport survived desertion on the coast of Brazil, fought under Sir Francis Drake in the daring raid against the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, and participated in England?s defeat of the Spanish Armada.  As a privateering sea captain for Queen Elizabeth I, Newport led more successful attacks against the Spanish both at sea and on land than any other English privateer.  He seized, for England, fortunes of Spanish treasure during fierce sea battles in the Caribbean.  At age 29, during a battle off the coast of Cuba, his right arm was cut off, dubbing him thereafter, ?Christopher Newport of the one hand.?

   After the war with Spain ended, Newport led long trading voyages to the far East for the East India Company and brought the first English ambassadors to Persia and India.  Newport rose through the ranks to become one of the six principal masters of the Royal Navy.  An outstanding navigator, famed sea captain, and legendary leader of men, Newport died on the Island of Java in 1617.

[Solomon]

Thanks for the clarification, Bart. Though it may seem a slight point, a pirate was a criminal to be hunted by all navies, whereas a privateer was a legitimate combatant who fought for their nation.

If I remember correctly, the Spanish did like to ignore the distinction - often calling English captains 'pirates' - though most, if not all the great seafaring nations used privateers when naval ships were in short supply and the need was urgent. It is because of Spanish attempts to besmirch the character of these men that I try to not let this slip by 

Cheers!
Solomon

[Solomon]

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II (2nd L) talks with archeological dig workers Dave Givens (L) and Danny Schmidt (R) in the pit of an archaeological dig at the "Historic Jamestowne" settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, May 4, 2007.
REUTERS/Jim Bourg

Queen's Jamestown tour evokes history, memories
Sat May 5, 2007

By Caren Bohan

WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Greeted by hundreds of admirers and bouquets of flowers, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II strolled past thatched-roof houses in historic Jamestown on Friday in a visit that evoked both the U.S. colonial past and the early years of her own reign.

The British monarch's visit marked the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown by English settlers who sailed for five months across the Atlantic in search of gold and silver.

Despite travails including a scarcity of food and clean water, the colonists established the first permanent British settlement in North America and named it after King James I.



For some Virginians old enough to have been in the area in 1957, the excitement around the visit brought a sense of deja vu. Queen Elizabeth, then a young mother who had assumed the throne just five years earlier, came to Jamestown for its 350th anniversary as well.

[Bart]

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. Queen Elizabeth the Second made her way to Colonial Williamsburg this evening after visiting the State Capitol in Richmond.

The queen took a horse-drawn carriage ride down Duke of Gloucester Street to her hotel in restored 18th-century capital. The queen rode in a mustard-yellow carriage called the Landau, named for the town in Germany where such carriages were made.

She arrived today for the commemoration of Jamestown's 400th anniversary.

Queen Elizabeth II was presented with flowers in Jamestown, Virginia. Her US visit marks the 400th anniversary of the country's first permanent English settlement.

On the first stop on her U-S visit in Richmond, the queen praised the cultural changes since she last visited American's first permanent English settlement 50 years ago.

Hundreds of people stood in lines for hours to enter the grounds of the refurbished 219-year-old Capitol.

Virginia musicians as diverse as marching bands to Grammy-winning bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley performed before the queen speech to Virginia's legislature.

[Bart]

Sword, armor found buried inside remains of James Fort

By DIANE TENNANT, The Virginian-Pilot ? May 9, 2007

Archaeologists Mary Anna Richardson, left, and Luke Pecoraro carefully begin excavating a potential cache of arms and armor that so far includes a broad sword with a basket hilt and blade, armor that protects the thigh and a rapier hilt, discovered recently at Historic Jamestowne. PHOTO BY MICHAEL LAVIN / APVA PRESERVATION VIRGINIA

JAMESTOWN - A cache of armor from the early 1600s has been discovered by archaeologists excavating a trash pit inside the remains of James Fort.

   Queen Elizabeth II viewed the objects during her visit Friday, observing a broadsword with a basket hilt, an iron pole, the hilt from a rapier and armor pieces that would have protected the thigh.

   "It may be like the tip of an iceberg," said William Kelso, director of archaeology for APVA Preservation Virginia, in a news release. "We'll see as we uncover more of it in the next few days."

   The armor was partly uncovered last week, about 3 feet below what would have been ground level in the early 1600s. The pit itself is 19 feet square. Because the layers slump toward the center, archaeologists think it might have been a well that went bad, and was then used for trash.

   Glass trade beads, baubles, chess pieces, iron objects and pottery shards have also been found in the pit. Indian artifacts found there include a grinding stone, a bone needle and shell beads. Animal remains include oysters, sturgeon, crab claws, fish, bird, turtle, deer and goat.

   Kelso speculated that it could be the first well dug by colonist John Smith in 1608-09. Archaeologists can date it by the artifacts, which include a coin dated 1613 found near the top, and by the fact that the pit is under the foundation of a building constructed in 1617.

   Furthermore, historical accounts mention that military equipment was buried in the fort in June 1610, when the colonists decided to abandon Jamestown after the "Starving Time" winter.

   The day after they left, they were forced to return by Lord De La Warre, whose supply fleet coming up the James River met the dispirited colonists coming down. Archaeologists also plan to work on a site this summer that they hope contains remnants of the first church built for the colony.

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